Guntur: The full functioning of the Temporary Secretariat started at Velagapudi on October 3. The railway department has started Secundrabad-Guntur-Vijayawada superfast express train to help the Secretariat employees. But the train has no halt at Mangalagiri which is very near to Velagapudi.
The employees have to travel 34 km through buses to reach Temporary Secretariat spending extra time of 70 to 90 minutes. The employees are seeking a halt to the train at Mangalagiri railway station which would lessen their journey difficulties.
The 12796 superfast express has only one stop at Guntur between Secunde-rabad at Guntur. This train will run for six days except Sunday with 10 second class seating bogies, 2 AC chair car bogies and two SLR bogies with 1,200 passenger capacity. Some employees of the Secreta-riat are coming to Velagapudi daily due to various reasons. This superfast express is helping the Secretariat employees and the public also are demanding extra halts to reach their destinations.
Employees of general administration department, S. Venkateswarlu and others said that they have some personal problems, so they decided to shift their families to Velagapudi later.
They said that the buses to Velaga-pudi from Guntur are going to Temporary Secretariat via Tadikonda-Tullur-Rayapudi-Mandadam and via Peda Kakani-Manga-lagiri-Yerrabalem and other villages, which is taking at least 70 to 90 minutes.
They said that the inter-city goes to Vijayawada via Mangalagiri but it has no stop there. They said that Velagapudi is only 14 km distance from Mangalagiri railway and autorickshaws, besides buses are also available.
They sought a halt to inter-city express at Mangalagiri, which would reduce travel difficulties to 20 minutes to Secretariat employees who travel daily from Secunderabad.
Traders P. Shanmukh, N. Gopala Rao and others said that this train is very good to travel to the Secretariat on daily basis as it starts at 5.30 am from Secunderabad railway station and reaches Guntur at 10.07 am. They said that the train is retur-ning at 6.18 pm and reaching Secunderabad at 11 pm.
